February 02, 2014

retracing steps

I must have known that Stockport is full of steps when I was growing up there, but I'd never fully realised what a multi-level town it is.

[split level town]

There are steep steps, wide steps, narrow steps, stone steps, cobbled steps. Steps with specific names, steps with handrails, pavements that become steps, vast steps up the to art gallery, magnificent steps up to the town hall, tall steps up to the market, winding steps down to pubs and fish and chips shops, and red brick steps with a plaque down to the bus station. Even the hospital is called Stepping Hill.

[Town Hall steps]

Many parts of Stockport were wrecked in the 1960s, but thankfully the steps in the centre remained. They are vital links between the old bits - the market, the shops, the churches, the pubs - and create a sense of connection. Unfortunately though these links and connections no longer extend beyond small area that covers the old centre perched on a hill and the newer shopping areas below.

[Art Gallery/War Memorial steps]

So unless you make a real effort to get to them, you'd never know that Stockport has some wonderfully interesting and historically significant buildings not so far form the epicentre of the market and Merseyway, just a short walk up more hills and slopes to the parts that were mostly demolished and erased, then either filled with busy roads and anonymous buildings or simply left to rot.

[Mealhouse Brow,Stockport]

There's an amazing Grade I listed Waterloo/Commissioners' church which was designed by the architect responsible for the Fitzwilliam Museum. There's an immensely forbidding, soot-covered late C19/Arts and Crafts church with a tremendously tall, dark spire which always gave me the shivers but which is actually far more pink and far less sombre close up. There's a 1925 Art Gallery and War Memorial (with not a single painting from the council-owned collection on display), many vast and beautiful red-brick mills dotted about as reminders of the town's cotton and hat-making heritage, and a madly ornate town hall that was admired by John Betjeman and contrasts wildly with the severely classical 1830s infirmary opposite. Then there are pink brick mill-owners' houses, fiery red brick schools, several pubs with important interiors, and even two listed tram shelters.

I spent a couple of hours on Friday wandering around Stockport with a map and my list of things to look for and at, and in retracing my own earlier footsteps (and those of Lowry who painted various Stockport steps) I discovered much more in the hills, mills, steps and brows than I'd ever seen before.

Comments

We were on our semi-annual visit to friends in Bramhall last weekend and discovered the fantastic air raid shelters in the tunnels below Stockport. The communal toilets were particularly fascinating to the younger members of the party. This now ties with the Hat Works Museum as top place to visit!

Oh Goodness! I live in Stockport and Crowther Street is one I admire every time I pass. i always think it's such a shame that unless you get out and have a jolly good walk around, you miss so much of the lovlier parts of Stockport. I'm very fond of my adopted home town. x

Thank you for a lovely post about Stockport.
I used to work in Stockport and lived in Heaton Moor so I do recognise some of the places you photograph . I often walked around the place discovering all sorts of interesting things. Have you seen the gravestone with the woman's life measured in moons up by the market place? Also the fantastic vintage village events held every month in the market hall. Great fun and full of people who are enthusiastic about good old Stockport and want to keep it alive.
The fantastic Plaza cinema and it's amazing cafe are also something to shout about!

I've been 'doing' Stockport with a group of friends after discovering how much there is to do there. We've visited Staircase House, the Hat Museum, the air raid shelters, and eaten at the Plaza and Lord of the Pies! There's still more to do too.

When you were naming the different types of steps it reminded me of the Oscar Mayer commercial a few years ago that named off all the different types of children that loved hot dogs and at the end ... even kids with chicken pocks love hot dogs... made me laugh!

There's a lot to be said for exploring a place properly - getting out of the car, getting out of the town centre and down those alleys and by-ways. Perhaps even just looking around you - remembering that up and down have treasures as well as eye level. I've just done that in Welshpool where I now live - another place which, if you speed though is dull and dreary but full of treasures if you stop and look.

I came to Stockport (Heaton Moor) in the early 70's when 'the precinct' was fairly new and Stopfordians were oh-so-proud of their brand new centre. In retrospect though what opportunities were lost covering up the river and obliterating a characterful part of town? (Admittedly there were probably sound reasons for doing this!) Will we look back nostagically at Merseyway in 50 years time? Somehow I doubt this anodyne concrete centre will stand the test of time.

Ah, Stockport. My hometown. Like you, I'm a Stockport Girl living down South and I've loved the frequent pictures of the old place on here. Thank you.
When I go up to visit my mum (a Reddish girl like you), I wonder why I couldn't see the beauty in any of it until I left. Still, it's a great place and lots to show my kids: the market hall, the museum, the Pennines and our favourite pit-stop: The Blackshaw Cafe near the market. Lovely.